Position retainer for hats



Jan. 11, 1944. HOFFELD 2,339,077

POSITION RETAINER FOR HATS Filed Feb. 19, 1945 Patented Jan. 11, 1944lJNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE POSITION RETAINER FOR HATS Louis Hofield,Bronx, N. Y.

Application February 19, 1943, Serial No. 476,439

2 Claims.

My invention relates to women's and childrens hats, and morespecifically to a device for retaining a hat on the head of the wearerin whatever position it is given when first put on, whether the hat beevenly placed on the head in the usual position, or whether it be tiltedto one side or the other.

My object is to provide a device of simple and cheap constructionremovably attached to the hat, and preferably formed in part of yieldingmaterial to adapt any one of the devices for use with hats of differentsizes.

Another object is to provide a device of the character described inwhich a minimum amount of the yielding material is used.

A third object is to provide a device of the character described,designed to hold the hat in adjusted positions upon the head of thewearer.

Other obgiects will appear in the subjoined description.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction andarrangement of parts as will be hereinafter described and claimed,reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is aperspective view illustrating one method of employing my device forholding a hat in tilted position on the head of the wearer.

Fig. 2 is a perspective illustrating how a slightly modified form of mydevice may be employed for holding a hat tilted in the same direction,namely; to the right.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a hat with the device attached theretoin approximately the position it would occupy relatively thereto when inuse.

Fig. 4 shows a plan view of the device detached from the hat; and,

Fig. 5 shows a slightly modified form of Fig. 4.

Referring further to the drawing, it will be seen that my device, whichfor brevitys sake may simply be referred to herein as hat retainer,com-prises two loops, l and 2, formed preferably of small braided cord,said loops being each formed by bending a section of cord upon itselfbringing its two extreme ends together, and rigidly connecting them toeach other by means of an anchoring needle 3 of well known constructionin this art, which is designed to detachably engage the inner band 4 ofthe hat, as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

The loops are linked together at their inner ends. The loop I is muchshorter than the loop 2, and is preferably formed of elastic cord,

i In this case the loop has already whereas the longer loop 2 is formedof nonelastic cord.

There are two reasons for making the loop 1 of elastic cord and short,whereas the loop 2 is made of inelastic cord and much longer. In thefirst place, due to the present shortage of rubber, no more elastic cordwill be manufac-- tured during the duration, and hence dealers arelimited to the stock that is already manufactured and on hand. Thismakes it necessary to practice extreme economy in the use of rubber lestthere be none at all obtainable, and the manufacture of these deviceswould have to be discontinued, since, for obvious reasons, it is verydesirable that devices of this character should have a limited degree ofelasticity. In the next place, users of these devices often desire towear their hats tilted to one side or the other, so that the rim of thehat on the downwardly tilted side comes down close to the ear of thewearer, in which case the elastic loop I can be slipped over the earjust as a buttonhole is slipped over a button: in this instance, the earcorresponding to a button and the elastic loop to the buttonhole. Ishould be only large enough to conveniently engage the ear, and shouldbe elastic to engage ears of slightly difierent sizes withoutdiscomfort.

Inasmuch as the retainer is provided with detachable anchoring needles,persons desiring to wear the hat tilted to the right side will wear thesmall elastic loop at the right side of the hat, but if they desire towear their hats tilted to the left side, they will attach the retainerto the hat with the elastic loop at the left side in position to engagethe left ear of the wearer.

In the modified form of the device shown in Fig. 5, I have shown the twolong sides of the long loop 2 rigidly united to each other at 5, wherebyto divide the inelastic loop 2 into two sections indicated by 2 and 2respectively. The loop formed by the opposing non-elastic sections 2 maybe passed over the ear of the wearer just as is the elastic loop I, theoperation of which been described; or, the right-hand end of the middleloop 2* may be made to embrace the ear bringing the point 5 just abovethe top of the ear, as illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawmg.

It should be noted that in this modified form of the device either one(the elastic or the nonelastic) of the short loops may be employed tohold the hat tilted either to the right or left on the head of thewearer. To illustrate this, let us refer to Fig. 1 of the drawing inwhich the elastic loop I engages the right ear of the wearer to hold thehat tilted to the right; but let us further suppose that, in order notto interfere with some special arrangement of the hair of the wearer, itis undesirable to encircle the right ear of the wearer with the elasticloop I. In that case, the elastic loop I is not placed around the rightear of the wearer, as shown in Fig. 1, but instead thereof, the loop 2is placed around the left ear of the wearer encircling it, as shown inFig. 2, in which the point 5 in Fig. 5 of the drawing, comes at the baseof the top projecting portion of the ear. Upon reflection it will beseen that the hat would still be held in exactly the same position itnOW occupies in Fig. 1, namely, tilted to the right. Any attempt to tiltthe hat shown in Fig. 2 to the left would impart to the loop 2* adownward pull on the left ear of the wearer, and such a pull would bemost effectually resisted because of the protruding shape of the upperpart of the ear.

In the modified form of the device shown in Fig. 5 it will be seen thatthe device consists practically of three loops-two short loops with alonger loop between them, one of the short loops being formed of elasticmaterial, and the other of non-elastic.

The cords of which this device is formed braided cords as indicated bythe shading in Fig. 4 of the drawing. For the sake of clearness, shad.-ing is omitted from the other figures of the drawing.

For obvious reasons, the braiding on the elastic cord is not quite soclose as that on the nonelastic which latter is closely and tightlywoven, much so that it feels almost as rough as a li tle file when thefingers are run along it. Having this roughened surface on the exteriorof the long loop which engages the jaw of the wearer tends to hold thedevice against longitudinal a movement when in use. In fact, it causesthe device to grip, as it were, the neck of the user. And then, the factthat the cords are doubled greatly increases the frictional resistanceof the cord to longitudinal movement when in operation; and greatlydecreases the tendency of the device to produce that disagreeablefeeling as if the cord were cutting into the flesh of the neck whensecured a little too tightly on the wearer.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a device of very simple andcheap construction, which adequately performs all the functions requiredof such a device.

What I claim is:

1. A device of the character described, for holding a hat in a givenposition on the head of the wearer, said device comprising acomparatively long middle loop for passing under the chin of the wearer,and having a shorter loop at each end of the long loop, said shorterloops each having at its outer end an anchoring pin for engaging theinner band of the hat at opposite sides thereof above the ears of thewearer, one of said shorter loops being of a size to receive the ear ofthe wearer, and of a length to extend from the under side of saidencircled ear to the point above the same where the loop is connected tothe inner hand of the hat; and the other short loop being of a length toextend from the top of the other ear of the wearer to its point ofcontact with the inner band of the hat above said ear.

2. A device of the character described for holding a hat tilted to oneside of the head of the wearer, said device comprising a comparativelylong middle loop for passing under the chin of the wearer, with ashorter loop at each end thereof, said shorter loops being each providedat its outer end with anchoring means for engagement with the inner bandof the hat on 010- posits sides thereof above the ears of the wearer,the one of said shorter loops at the lower side of the hat being formedof elastic material and of a size to receive the ear of the wearer, andof a length to extend from the under side of said encircled ear to thepoint above the same, where the loop is connected to the inner band ofthe hat; and the other short p at the higher side of the hat being of alength to extend from the top of the other ear of the wearer to itspoint of contact with the inner band of the hat above said ear wherebyany strain imposed upon the hat to tilt it in either direction will beyieldingly resisted by the short elastic loop, thereby requiring theminimum amount of elastic material for the production of the device.

LOUIS HOFFELD.

